Cougars use Last Chance Meet as final tune-up for regionals

PROVO, Utah – BYU track and field athletes took advantage of their final home meet of the season by solidifying positions to qualify for the NCAA West Prelims and by earning career-best marks at BYU’s Last Chance Meet.

“It was nice to have this final tune-up meet ahead of the NCAA West Prelims,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We had some athletes on the bubble of qualifying that we wanted to improve their marks, but with weather conditions we didn’t get quite as many as we wanted. However, I think we’re going to have close to record numbers in terms of regional participants.”

Hurdlers Alyssa Dalton and Nicole Lord, just two weeks removed from successful performances at BYU’s Robison Invitational where they moved up on BYU’s all-time board, both followed up with more strong performances at home.

Dalton clocked a 13.48 in both the heptathlon 100m hurdles and the 100m hurdles finals to win both races, while Lord moved up to No. 8 all-time at BYU and improved her regional qualifying position with a 13.59 in the heptathlon 100m hurdles.

Max Scheible ran a 50.95 to win the 400m hurdles for the Cougars. Teammate Colten Yardley earned a career best of 51.77 in his third-place finish to put himself just inside the top-48 in the region and on the bubble for qualifying.

Whittni Orton ran her second meet of the outdoor season coming off an injury and won the mile with a time of 4:47.16. Her time was adapted to the 1500m, along with the elevation conversion, to give her a 4:20.67 and solidified her qualifying position for the NCAA Prelims.

The Cougars swept the men’s 800m with Patrick Parker earning a personal-best 1:50.87 to win it for the men. Abraham Alvarado, who had the No. 27 nationally ranked 800m time of 1:48.05 heading into the meet, finished second (1:51.38), and Connor Ross ran a career best coming in third (1:52.29).

Karina Haymore took first in the 800m on the women’s side with a time of 2:10.12. Teammates Sidney Unga (2:10.93) and Taylor Leavitt (2:12.48) came in second and third, respectively, to give BYU the sweep.

Jefferson Jarvis threw well enough to take first in the shot put (17.86m) and second in the discus (49.74m), behind teammate Seth Knowlton who took first (49.84m). The Cougars swept the women’s pole vault with Sierra Hansen finishing first after clearing 4.01m. Kyndal Stewart and Isabel Neal concluded the sweep with career-best vaults of 3.85m and 3.70m, respectively.

BYU track and field will wait for the official list of qualifiers and prepare for the NCAA West Prelims that take place on May 24-26. Follow BYU track and field on Twitter @BYUTFXC for live updates and check the BYU track and field team’s schedule page on the day of the meet for live stats.

For the official results from the Last Chance Meet, click here.